Who was Mad Sandy Almond?

 

 

Mad Sandy Almond was a legend, the prototype of the nerveless iceman, a man who cared not if he lived or died as long as he ran his train right time.

 

 

 

An old illustration of a Driver, probably Almond in Winter Dress.  Note the muffler wrapped round his hat and the missing ring finger on his right hand.  The early Great Western engines had no cabs or  weather boards.  In rain, snow or sleet the old drivers would pull their cap down and wrap their muffler over their nose.  So protected they could see thru the slit between the cap's bill and the muffler well enough to drive at speed.

 

The man Michael John (Sandy) Almond, born near Newcastle in 1807,   was a driver who possessed such and iron nerve he was said to display a “madman’s calm” in emergences.  For that reason the Great Western men begin to call him “Mad Sandy Almond” as a statement of admiration for his calm professionalism.  The real driver Almond set the world land speed record in 1848, still holds the evaporation record for locomotives in scheduled service and was a real life hero twice.    

 

Land Speed Record:

On 11 May 1848 the Great Western Railway staged a speed and haulage demonstration to “educate the public” as to the advantages of the Broad Gauge.  Driver Almond ran the engine Great Britain at a maximum speed of 78 mph and an average speed of 67 mph for 56 miles.  Had the world land speed record been officially recognized at the time Almond would have held it for approximately 30 years.   

 

Evaporation Record:

A somewhat arcane record still stands.  The Broad Gauge locomotives were optimized for evaporating the most water per pound of coal.  Almond, driving Great Britain, set a record of 9.7 pounds of water evaporated per pound of coke, equivalent 11 pounds of water per pound of coal.  Standard gauge engines tend to be optimized for maximum horsepower rather than evaporation thus Almond’s record seems safe.

 

First time Hero:

The turntable at Didcot was not long enough to accommodate both an engine and it’s tender.  While it’s tender was being turned an improperly secured engine ran away Up the Down line.  Almond had just stopped an Up train and unhooked his train and outran the runaway to the next crossover.  There he had the signalman turn his bar against both lines and set the points so the runaway was placed on the Up line behind Great Britain.  A little fancy regulator work and the runaway buffered up to Great Britain’s tender.  While his fireman worked the hand brakes Almond jumped the buffers to the runaway and shut it down.

 

Second time Hero:

At age 67 Almond was appointed the Paddington Shed Foreman.  One of his duties was to ride along on Royal Trains to see things went well.  The points to Windsor were mixed gauge and it was possible to set two of the points for one line and one for the other.  That in fact is what happened as the Royal train was approaching with the Shaw of Iran.  The driver only saw the disk showing the points set for Windsor.  In 1838 Almond had been wrecked by badly set points.  In 1874 he still remembered the lesson and when, from half a mile away he saw the sun reflected from only two points he stopped his driver and saved the train from derailment.

 

Driver Almond's madness seems to have been made up of equal parts diligence and Courage.  May all drivers be infected with Almond's madness.

 

 

 

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